“It appears that President Obama is beginning to make good on his climate promises, but to truly meet his obligation to future generations, this must be the foundation – not the final act – of his climate legacy. The current Congress has made it clear that it will be on the wrong side of history, so it is absolutely vital for the President to use his authority to reduce power plant pollution, move forward with renewable energy projects on public lands, and increase energy efficiency.

“Greenpeace’s three million worldwide members will applaud the President beginning to lead on climate issues, but the bigger test will be whether Mr. Obama has the ability to follow through on this progress. The President must finally abandon George W. Bush’s catastrophic ‘all of the above’ energy strategy without half-measures or false promises. There's no room in a sane energy policy for the Keystone pipeline, ‘clean coal,’ fracking, Arctic oil drilling, or giant giveaways to the coal industry.”

President Obama faces several important decisions on major fossil fuel projects that will test his climate commitment. A Greenpeace report this year, “The Point of No Return,” quantified the carbon pollution of 14 planned fossil fuel projects around the world, threatening to send the world over a climate cliff. President Obama and his administration can take action without Congress on several of these projects by denying a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, stopping the oil industry’s efforts to exploit melting sea ice in the Arctic to drill for more oil, and placing a moratorium on the leasing of federally owned coal.